Rising tournament
The start of the tournament around Hamaz town of this year, drawing mostly competitors from the town and surrounding area, mostly thanks to the rather small price of 1800 jewels, and bragging rights that can be won. The arena itself, while having a rather plain fighting area did had a luxurious hotel where tourists and participants could stay over. One of the contestants for this tournament was Celeste Lilith, hoping to find an opponent who was strong enough to help her, even though the money was also a nice given. A woman sat a top a nearby rock looking down at the contestants with a bored expression, "pity, looks like this'll be a waste of time" she thought to herself as she giggled, "but than again, I don't really have any time to waste" she said once again inside her thoughts as she grinned with her head resting on her hand. Entering through the front door, she tried to gauge how strong her opponents would be during the tournament and after checking up with the administration went towards the waiting room. Storing her wrench away, she got her pipe again and after making sure there was still some in it, lighted it up while waiting for the announcers to call her name. Several months had passed as Celeste advanced into the semi-finals in where she her opponent as Ophelia as both walked down the long ramp opposite of each other into the arena, Ophelia stood there cracking her shoulder blades in a relaxed manner as she then stopped and just stood there when the referee ringed the bell. The match started though and nothing happened as her opponent simply stood there with a grin staring at Celeste. Slowly rolling her shoulders as if she was getting ready for work, Celeste pulled her wrench up again while storing her pipe away at the same time. True to what she already heard, her opponent was strong. Strong enough to get this far without notable problems, and maybe even strong enough to help her. "Hopefully you're as strong as they say Ophelia, it would save me a lot of trouble." Stretching her legs for a moment, she started running towards Ophelia, aiming to ram her wrench in the abdomen to bring Ophelia down in one hit while readying her normal arm to grab the neck. Ophelia's grin widened as her eyes showed nothing by animalistic sensation as she remained still letting wrench ram into her gut as her let out a moan, "ooooh my!! aren't we violent" she said now with a grin which showed all of her teeth in an open smile of lust. Despite though it only knocked her back slightly barely moving from her spot, "ooooh yes, so magnificent!" she said in a whiney tone as the other arm grabbed her neck tightly, with still nothing but eyes that showed nothing but perversion at this as if she got off on being brutalised. Slightly suprised at how Ophelia seemed to enjoy the two attacks, Celeste raised the wrench upwards while tightening her grip on the throat, as if to choke her. This women, why did she get such enjoyment out of this? "Why do you enjoy pain?" For a second she wavered, but then brought the wrench downwards, aimed at Ophelia's head while trying to restrain her power just enough to knock her out. Ophelia licked her lips as the wrench smacked into her skull as the sound verberated off the arena making the crowd go silent, as the sound of the wrench hitting her skull sounded like it should've knocked her out or killed her as a few moments pass before Ophelia let out a euphoric moan, "oooh my, rough girl aren't you?" she said, "oh the pleasure of seeing those eyes" she thought to herself looking at Celeste before she grabbed Celeste's normal arm on her neck as she suddenly rammed her head straight into Celeste's skull as she squeezed down on Celeste's normal arm seemingly with enough force that it could snap the bone any moment. Who was this woman who managed to stay awake after a hit to the head with her wrench? Letting out a groan when the two heads clashed, Celeste removed her wrench before placing her prosthetic hand back on Ophelia her neck, this time placing more pressure on the back of the neck instead of the front. "Maybe, but you seem to be a rough girl too, so would you release my arm without me using more force on your neck?" was what Celeste said before increasing the pressure on the neck a bit. If the opponent could survive the hit to the head, her offer seemed rather shallow, but using a take-over while her arm was almost crushed... She was not gonna take the possible backlash for that one if she could help it. Ophelia grinned, "oooh, aren't you the ripe little one?" she said with a moan and a giggle as she let go, as Ophelia cracked her shoulder blade out of place twisting her arm in her socket as she loosely and playfully swung a punch towards Celeste. Despite the casual manner in which she threw the punch, it was no mistake getting hit would throw the opponent a few feet away from her. As Ophelia grinned with nothing but sensation and lust in her eyes, it was clear this woman was extremely experienced and had a sexual love to fight. Jumping backwards, out of the reach of Ophelia her punch, Celeste held her normal arm loosly hang next to her crouched body. Gathering some magic, she slowly stood up while keeping her eyes on the opponent. "Take-over" The moment she whispered that word, a strong light surrounded her for a moment, before reappearing in her preferred take-over, getting her weapons out at the same time. As she popped her shoulder blade back into its socket, she turned it between her hand then put it on her hip with the other hand to her side. "Ooooh, using magic on little ol' me?" she teased, "I can't use any magic I'm afraid" she said in a whiney tone with a grin as she started pouring out intense amounts of magical energy standing there with her hand on her hip. "I hope these high heels hold up, I just bought them too" she teased in a loose voice. "The only reason i am using magic on you is because you can use it yourself too darling. " was Celeste her response, keeping her voice steady. When she saw the referee coming towards them, she motioned for him to go back. Not really unexpected considering the only mages that entered where either dead, in the hospital or in the finale. "So, are we finally done with the warming-up now or would you prefer another warming-up?" She joked towards Ophelia. "Oh dear, you saw right through me?" she said pretending to be surprised before putting her hand back on her hip, "but I'm afraid I'm rusty... I haven't used magic in over 10 years" she said, "I'm afraid I might've forgotten" she teased, "no matter, I guess I'll just use my body" she said clenching a fist before rubbing down her thighs in ecstacy. "Don't joke with me will you?" Her voice growing slightly annoyed with how Ophelia seemed to joke around. Charging some power around her wrenches, she tried to ignore the pain she still felt where Ophelia grabbed her before, it would pass over eventually. "Lets dance shall we?" Was all she said before letting go of her restraint on her strength, charging towards her opponent with four times the previous speed she displayed, aiming both of her weapons with full force at Ophelia. Ophelia let out a euphoric moan as her back in a show of master reflex as well as upper body and leg strength arched down just hovering above the ground as her legs maintained its composure while bent so low, and she held the form effortlessly, as she just dodged the charged attack from Lilith as she stared her into the eyes. "Aren't you fiesty... hmm ooooh I love that look" she said before clenched her fist and swung it towards the skull of Lilith. Trying to ignore the soft voice of temptation the mask started to use to herself, Celeste opened the helmet part of her take-over so the punch would hit the mask instead of the helmet and hopefully breaking it as she rammed down on Ophelia with her wrenches. The punch would probably hurt like hell the moment she got out of this take-over, but that was a price she was willing to pay. Ophelia let out a brief gasp of pleasure as Celeste managed to slam down on her head. Ophelia's punch connecting to Celeste's jaw at the perfect angle to disorientate the opponent stifling cognitive ability as she was experienced enough to know which hits would disorientate her targets the most as blood squirted the arena from Ophelia as a stream of blood trickled down the right side of her face, Ophelia's punch created a sudden shock wave as people in their seats could feel the intense connection of Ophelia's hit on Celeste. Slightly grinning after taking the hit to her face, she jumped a few steps backwards as the wrenches disappeared. The moment she landed, she rubbed the part of her face that got hit. "Damn, you sure know how to play hard to get." Getting ready to charge some power in her legs to increase her speed tenfold, she closed her helmet part again. "Wanna go on a date after this fight darling?" As she asked, she charged some power in both her legs and arms in preparation of the incoming cat-fight. Ophelia grinned as she stuck out her hand, "want to see a magic trick?" she said as she took her hand and snapped her wrist as it hung limp, an intense crunching sound proceeded as Ophelia managed to rip her hand off as blood sprayed the arena dripping down profusely. She held up her hand, "watch carefully" she said with a grin as she ripped off a part of her skirt to wrap it around the severed hand as she put her other hand around her back. A glint in her eye as she put it between her armpit and with her hand, stabbed into the open gash as the audience was completely silent and in disgust at this moment as well as awe in a shocked sort of way. She than pulled as veins strained on her arm as she pulled completely out yet another hand as she clutched it into a fist with a grin. However, what happened to the hand wrapped up. Her hand now covered in blood took hold of the wrapped object as she slowly unwrapped it... the cloth fell to the ground. It was... wait? was this possible? Ophelia spun the severed hand on her long finger with a sadistic grin, the hand was Celeste's right hand, as the audience looked over to Celeste to see her right hand indeed missing!!!!!! The crowd bursted in shock. "So i guess that is a no to the date?" Taking a deep breath as she tried to ignore the pain, and failing at that pretty bad too, she released the chaos in an effort to dull the pain so that she could think up a solution to her predicament. How did she do that trick, and why didn't the pain come earlier? Not to mention, one moment her hand was still attached while the other moment, it was spinning on one of Ophelia's fingers... Going through several options at a high pace, she had to confirm a few things before she could discard several possibility's. Charging a bit more power than usual in her speed, it would appear to the audience as if Celeste had multiplied herself while charging towards Ophelia at all the possible angles, trying to hit her with either a wrench, a feet or an elbow. Unbeknown to most of Celeste her opponents, the speed she could reach with just a bit of magic charged through Jizuri for the speed boost was enough to make it appear as if she cloned herself or used a very high level of teleportation since Ophelia would still feel the impact of being hit with the wrench, elbow and feet of the different Jizuri. She hoped that Ophelia would fall for the bait, and believe that the hits where indeed from Celeste herself instead of being hit with high-pressured wind that was concentrated in orbs with some of them big enough to give the same feel as being hit with the feet, some giving the same feel as being hit with the wrench while the others gave the same feel as being hit with the elbow. Hiding herself afterwards behind one of the statues, she waited to see how Ophelia would deal with this. An opponent that seemingly attacked from all directions but that was nowhere to be found at the same time. Ophelia looked with a blank stare at the charging Celeste's as she lifted her right hand to block one of them being the wrench, "hmm?" she said as her eyes opened a bit wider in surprise as another hit her from the side of the face, she let a grin cock across her face before having it vanish as she was analyzing the situation as side stepped another of the Celeste, "interesting..." she said as she turned and side stepped another before being punched with a wrench in the gut as she spit out blood as almost a hundred seemed to close in on her location before they piled her as she let out a grin, "I see now..." a huge explosion occurred as the now Ophelia was stuck into the countless as the referee saw Ophelia's hand protruding from the bodies, "it appears that Ophelia.." the crowd let out a gasp in surprise that Ophelia was beaten when she scrapped a edge of her fingernail against the referee's cheek stopping him as she fell in surprise. She had ended up behind him, yet, there seemed to be a corpse that resembled her underneath. Interesting As the different body's of Celeste seemingly disappeared into thin air, she appeared on the other end of the area while standing still as if frozen. Trying to get a hand again with a partial take-over, she released the effort when she noticed something that she didn't think of before. Discarding several possibility's, she started to piece a few puzzle pieces together. First of, the pain. Normally, she would've still felt something else when releasing the chaos since it only dulled the psychological pain and kept the pain lower but now, the pain was completely gone as long as she didn't reign in the chaos again. Secondly, why did Ophelia have to rip off her own hand first to pull of the trick? Almost as if she had somehow switched the situation, with Celeste her hand ripped of instead of Ophelia her own hand. "Mind returning my hand to me dear? I actually need my right hand so it would be nice to have it back and attached." Ophelia looked on with a blank look as she gripped Celeste's hand before licking it sensually, up to the middle finger nail tip, "what can you do with a severed hand?" she chuckled as she tossed it towards Celeste exactly 2 paces in front of Celeste. "Oops, it appears I'm not very good at throwing things...", Ophelia looked at her own shadow before looking up at the shadings in the sky... "hmm, it's almost time" she thought to herself. As the severed hand turned into a flock of doves before Ophelia appeared right behind Celeste as she wrapped her arms around her including Celeste's open gash, removing her arms from Celeste, she had return the severed hand in functional workings to Celeste as she licked Celeste's neck slightly before whispering, "we really must do this again..." she said before jumping back as her body suddenly decayed underneath blue fire completely incinerating herself before completely vanishing from presence. The referee in shock of what just occurred rung the bell as Celeste was the victor. Reverting back to her normal form, containing and controlling the chaos again she groaned from the hits she took in the time she used jizuri. "Until we meet again tigress, hopefully we can finish our match at that time." Her voice a whisper while looking at the sky as the referee announced she won the fight on default and would be advancing to the finals as Celeste herself started to wonder how Ophelia could sneak up on her that easily. Going towards the sickbay, she passed a rather curious male with glasses, probably for his semi-finals fight was what Celeste thought as she went through the door to the rooms behind it. 15 minutes had transpired as the man as the match had ended and the finals began as Sakura stood facing Celeste in the ring with a wrapped object on his back like when he was walking in the hall with his eyes fixated on playing a video game. Sakura seemed to not be paying attention still furiously clicking a way on the video game as the referee called the match wen he suddenly sat down to focus on his video game in the middle of the arena with a frustrated look on his face. Seeing her opponent play a video game during the finals, Celeste scratched her head while lighting her kiseru again. "Ya know, we are supposed to fight to determine the winner of this tournament." Hopefully, she would have an easier fight this time in comparison with her previous fight. While it would mean that she had found at least two with enough strength to help her, it was still not sure if either Ophelia or Sakura would like to help her in the first place. Silence took hold as the crow looked on before a tear dropped onto the tile, Sakura was crying as he stood up putting away his game to face Celeste as the referee came over, "a-are you okay?", the referee got an awkward expression on his face as Sakura looked over with a teary face, "OF COURSE NOT YOU FOOL! THEY DIED!! I KILLED THEM!" he said taking the referee by the collar as he asked, "H-HEY! WAIT! Killed who?!" as the crowd listened in, "the demon children! I DID IT TO SAVE THE KINGDOM!!" he said a crowd member said, "isn't that just a game?" as Sakura let go of the referee and pointed at the crowd, "you~! DON'T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE!" as he dropped to his knees, "it's more than just a game! It is..." he said with a serious expression and tone, so serious it's make even the most intensely looking person squirm, before he snapped out of it to see Celeste, "shit, I forgot!! The fight!" he said standing up as he pointed at Celeste, "LET'S GO BITCH!" he said with a frustrated look grinding his teeth together! Raising an eyebrow at his usage of words, she only removed her kiseru while pulling out her wrench again. Why couldn't she face a more mature opponent instead of this one in the finals? "I'd prefer it if you kept the insults to a minimum okay?" While taking a more defensive stance, she still kept up a relaxed appearance to the outside. The referee looked confused as Sakura looked to him, "start the match bitch!" he said as his frustrated expression turned into a grin, as the referee hesitated and stuttered, "r-r-right! Begin!" he proclaimed as the bell rang. Sakura inhaled a breath to exhale softly, his goggles becoming see through as ember eyes showed, and a target system on his goggles before Noticing a small change in the goggles of her opponent, with a simple charge of magic through her wrench, Celeste slammed the wrench to the ground while releasing the magic at the point of impact, resulting in making a rift in the ground with energy tearing through it towards her opponent. Depending on how her opponent would deal with it, she had several options ready at her disposal. Sakura took the bandaged off his back to block the rift coming at him, creating an intense blast and shock wave as the energy tail from Celeste turned to smoke as well despite it not igniting in an explosion, as Sakura ran to the left out of the side without his sheathed object on his back as he swung to connect a fist with Celeste when the smoke tail ignited, and something was coming. But there was no one running it was as if something was covering using the smoke as cover, similar to a slide as it suddenly burst right near Celeste while Sakura stepped in front of Celeste the smoke blowing from his body also swinging a punch, this time he had the wrapping on his back as the one to side stopped his advance when he noticed she went for a double block as he touched her mecha arm before the Sakura in front of her unstrung the string off his case on his back when the smoke suddenly blew past them off the arena clearing it as if a strong wind came, yet no wind only to show one Sakura standing in front of her as he held his hands in front of her face, "bang!" he said at point blank as a massive explosion occurred as fire blew off many of the tiles and incinerated the inner ones. Not only the crowd, but even the referee was shocked at the blast, most of them even let out a gasp of shock when they could hear faint coughing in the smoke. Damn that was dangerous, never thought i would actually be happy that this mask was this sturdy. Jumping backwards before dispelling the smoke that surrounded her, she removed her wrench for the moment as she thought up a solution to that explosion of his. Extending a small dagger from the wrist of her prosthetic, she got ready for a bit of sword-fighting, while replacing her damaged clothes for new ones as she tried to ignore the burn wounds from the explosion. Using explosions normally meant that close range was your weak point but since he had dared to attack with his fists, that logic would probably not work on him, so what about sharp objects like daggers or blades? Sakura jumped out of the smoke as he landed near the edge of the arena as he looked up with an elongated whistle. As he leaned back on his heels, he appeared to be missing a string on his hand, which must've been incinerated in the blast. As the smoke cleared he saw Celeste, as he whistled at her, "being cautious doesn't win battles" he said referencing how she had begun the fight. Donning more durable clothes then before, Celeste gave off the impression that she wasn't even going to use a stance while using the dagger. She just looked completely relaxed, even while facing off with this strange opponent. She took a natural posture, with her dagger to her side, only using the bare-minimum of her strength; which she used to stand. "Fanatics find their heaven in a never ending storm, so tell me what you yearn of." Her voice was soft, almost as if speaking to herself while keeping her eyes on the opponent in front of her. "Huh?" Sakura said as suddenly Celeste's mecha arm became so heavy it slammed onto the ground, immobilizing her from moving it at all. "That 'other me' that disappeared? The smoke was a distraction so he could place a seal onto your mechanical arm as well as for this..." he said as he extended his hands, "strangle!" he said as the missing string from his finger grew out wildly from around her neck where he had placed it as it strapped around Celeste, throwing her to the ground. "Annoying little trickster" As Celeste slammed her normal fists onto the ground, the ground underneath and around her distorted and broke into pieces. While someone whispered -What's happening?-, Celeste let out a large amount of smoke during the transformation. Celeste's entire skin changed to a a mix of scarlet red and black as she started her transformation. As the string around her neck could be heard to snap in two snapped, the smoke surrounding her dispersed with a thunderous roar that shattered a few of the nearby windows. As the crowd returned their attention to the arena, standing with an imposing stance was, a feminine-type giant, clad in what appeared like red armor with black clothing. Under the evening sky, as the sun was setting in front of Sakura where a light wind was blowing. Then, anyone in that area could hear a certain sound. Right now, the posture of Celeste was clearly leaning forward, its hips turned lightly to the outside. Still, as if she was held by an invisible force, she did not straighten her posture right from the start as whispering could be heard. The sound of Celeste regaining her posture. A sound could be heard. The voice, resounding quietly with a low tone, "This is getting tiresome..." Celeste pulled both of her arms back, pulling two long wrenches from her hips. She spun them around once, then brandished them. "--Then again, you at least don't fight with strange magic like my last opponent" Celeste began charging energy to raise her speed to dodge or block in case he pulled another one of that weird atack combination. Celeste's wrench arm though suddenly drops to the ground with such density immobilising it as she drops the wrench she was carrying. Sakura's goggles glint as a flash of red hair came across him, turning around he noticed a beautiful woman who looked like a Goddess as she wore lipstick with a smile, her dimples intoxicating as he started blushing "she's totally my type!!" he exclaimed under his breath. "Tch" Giving her normal arm a wrench, she increased her speed more than needed to accommodate for the extra weight, running at him with just enough speed that the crowd would think of it as teleporting while aiming for the back of this opponent with her weapon. While going at him though, she kept ready to switch her weighted arm in front of another attack. Sakura grinned as he looked at the unknown woman, "heh! I'll just look cool while dodging and win this" he said with a glint on his teeth as he jumped up with a thumbs up trying to pose foolishly as the woman giggled, "oh yeah, she wants me" Sakura said as suddenly blood came out as he was hit in the back. His moronic pose left him way to open, "shit!" he said as magic numbers suddenly appeared out of him 40 points as he hit the ground outside of the arena and in doing so losing as he got to he knees, "owwww" he said noticing the woman gone as tears came down his cheeks. Taking out his video game, "damn, I lost 40 point with that hit" he said as he stood up, the referee calling Sakura into the arena to stand adjacent to Celeste in which they shook hands. Releasing her take-over as they shook hands, she asked the referee about the prize that the winner would get. What she got was the information that it would be after a king of the hill kind of fight after the contestants got 10 hours of rest. Sighing, she went to her hotel-room while calling roomservice for food and drinks before she would get to bed so she could get some sleep. A knock came on Celeste's door in exactly 10 hours giving her a full day of rest notifying her to go to the arena... as Sakura stood next to Celeste in the arena, him sitting on the floor as usual playing his video game as blood drizzled down his nose as he sneakily glanced up to see through Celeste's bra. Ataram walked down to the ring with a sword to her side which surprised Sakura as he didn't know she was in the finals, the woman he made a total fool of. As she took her stance opposite to Sakura and Celeste the mystery contestant walked out, Melereon Troska. A sword also gripped to his side. Ataram's face changed from slightly reserved to battle weary eyes at Troska's sight as she could tell he was incredibly strong and would pose the greatest danger to her. Looking at her opponents, Celeste released a tired sigh. That Sakura was already an annoying opponent, while the other two would probably be strong as well if they were the only unknown ones added to this battle. Celeste's entire skin became pure white as she began the transformation. Even her clothes became white as virginal snow. Her hair changed color to blue, appearing wilder the moment the color change was completed. While her mouth remained the same, her teeth became sharper. The eyes themselves also changed with the iris turning ocean blue, while the sclera remained white. Her right eye got covered with a black eye-patch, adorned with a skull that she pulled of right from the start. With normal opponents, she liked to prolong the battle but with these opponents she preferred to finish it as quick as possible. Her body however received the most notable changes. As her skin started to get a normal color back, it became more toned, her muscles more defined than normal. Her clothing attire also changed to be more fit for a barbarian or a wild women made of brown leather, bandages and some fur, leaving her legs, arms and chest mostly bare. Before the transformation finished, she extended her right hand to the side to pull out a sword. "Can't be the only one without a weapon, now can i?" Sakura was playing his game out of range as a trickle of blood came from his nose spotting the mostly bare Celeste. Melereon stood up onto the arena with a grin, as he pulled at his sword slightly before keeping it in its sheath as Ataram pulled out plant seeds from her side pocket as the referee began the match Ataram shot seed bullets at Melereon only for Melereon to dodge as he suddenly appeared with rapid quickness beside Ataram, "you're too slow" he said as he swung a kick to her as she blocked with her arm being thrown a nearly to the edge of the arena with that single blow before she flipped and landed on the very edge only for Merereon to appear in front of her again as he drew his sword, the referee got startled as he shouted "no killing allowed! restrain yourself!" but the slash was already in motion before Ataram bent back just narrowly avoiding the slash. Most of her body now hovering above the outside of the arena as Melereon went for another slash only for Ataram to move the side as she gently touched his open clothing embedding a seed into him unknowingly as she too drew her sword as she got behind Melereon only for Melereon to slash behind him blocking Ataram. As he blocked though the force was great enough to throw Ataram into the center of the arena sliding as she came to a halt, kneeling down exhausted already. Melereon grinned. There was a moment of silence from this intense clash as if the audience were holding their breath before they finally exhaled as cheers erupt from the stands all around. "Sakura, why won't you go help that red-haired woman? If i recall correctly, you were smitten with her appearance, and tried to impress her with that foolish pose right? Don't you think she would be impressed even more if you protected her from that Melereon guy and helped her in defeating him?" If those three would fight each-other, Celeste herself would hopefully not be exhausted during this match since her opponents would've already used up some energy and magic. 3 Hours Later The battle finally came to a close as Celeste stood victorious. As Sakura was exhausted and blood was laid sprawled out on the ground next to a defeated Ataram. Melereon was no where to be found as he left the arena of his own free will early on after he was disappointed by Ataram. Releasing her transformation, Celeste walked calm towards Sakura while keeping her guard up. "Maybe you can go to her in the hospital if they manage to get her stable again Sakura." Pushing Sakura softly out of the arena, the judge declared Celeste the winner, while rushing Ataram to the hospital. End of the Tournament, commending the Election Arc A man stood in the bleachers watching Celeste as he let a smile slip from his lips, the emblem of the Wild Banshee Guild sewed onto his attire as he began walking downwards. Celeste, Sakura and Ataram were attended by hospital personnel to treat their serious injuries although Ataram seemed to have received the worst. The man, after standing idly by for a bit too long approached Celeste with a smile, "hello, that was quite the intense battle" he said in a smooth voice. Turning to look at the speaker, Celeste gave Trébol a quick look-over before stopping at his guild emblem for a few moments longer, before gazing into his eyes. "And also a lot less annoying than the previous two battles i had in this tournament." Bending her arm with the bandages around it, she tried to see how loose the nurses tied it. "What does one such as you have to do with a normal explorer like me?"